


Red Like Roses Fills My Dreams

by Mijali



Category: RWBY
Genre: Brief Mention of Blood, F/F, Found Family, Friendship, Hanahaki Disease, Hospitalization, Illnesses, Pining, sisterly relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-06 01:38:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15875835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mijali/pseuds/Mijali
Summary: Weiss left to take over her father's company, leaving her friends and Ruby behind in the process. A year later she finds herself very ill, reminders of Ruby scattered everywhere she looks. Is it too late to fix what she's broken, and would Ruby even be willing to listen, after what she's done?





	1. Chapter 1

Weiss was pacing her office.

She hadn’t gotten around to redecorating it after her father’s passing despite her intense hatred of the wallpaper. She  _ had,  _ however, taken down that absurd portrait of himself and replaced it with a landscape of the mountains in summer, and while it clashed with the colors, she enjoyed the burst of green in an otherwise dark room. 

Today, though, her thoughts were not on the decor, or the painting, or even her work.    
  
Today, her thoughts were centered solely on a woman in a red hooded cape who she had been desperately trying to  _ avoid _ thinking about for the past year. 

In Weiss’ hand was a rose petal, crimson red and perfectly shaped. So perfect that Weiss knew instantly that it wasn’t grown.    
  
No, this was Ruby’s, and she had found it lying on her pillow when she had woke up that morning. 

Was Ruby here? Was it just a lingering piece from her past that had gotten stuck somewhere, before finally finding its way to her bed – hers didn’t wilt like natural ones did so it was entirely possible it was that old. 

With a sigh, Weiss came to a stop, running her fingers across it absently. 

If Ruby had been in her room last night, Weiss would have noticed – she was a year out of practice, but some instincts don’t go away that quickly and no huntress would fail to notice someone hovering over their bed – when Ruby and her had shared a bed, she would wake anytime the girl rolled over.

So then, this must have been caught in her clothing or her bag or something. She had been (finally) going through her things from Vale, so maybe it had been in there? 

Weiss stared at the petal for a bit longer, before setting it down on her desk next to the framed photo she kept of her team, her eyes resting on Ruby a bit longer than the rest. Of all her teammates, Ruby was the best – not just in her fighting capabilities, which she really came into with age, but also just in how their personalities meshed – and as they had gotten older, they had both evened out a bit, causing the pair to be nearly inseparable.    
  
She turned away from the desk and the photo and the petal, and strode towards the door – she had a 12 o’clock meeting, and she couldn’t be late.  
  


* * *

 

  
She dreamt of Ruby.   
  


She felt like she must have dreamt of her before, since this one seemed familiar to her despite not having any real memory of it. 

Her hand tightened around Ruby’s and she smiled so big she could feel it – she must have been blushing as well, since she felt warm.    


She tried to say speak, but her words felt trapped in her throat; Ruby was smiling back at her though, and Weiss forgot whatever it was she had been trying to say as they stood together under the canopy of the forest.    
  
Ruby was in a particularly sun speckled spot, and whenever the light hit her eyes they shone, like polished silver, bright and sharp.  

“Ruby, I–”    
  
Weiss tried to get the words out, but her throat tickled and she coughed a few times to try and clear it.    
  
“Are you okay, Weiss?”    
  
“F-fine– I just–” Another series of coughs and the dream was over, Ruby fading into the dim light of her room. 

“What is–” Another cough, and she reached over and turned on the lamp, startled to find red on the sheets and her shirt. “What the hell?”   
  
She reached down to touch it, instinctively reviewing any injuries she could have taken, before realizing the red was not blood, but rather a handful of perfectly shaped rose petals in a very specific shade of crimson. 

“What the hell is this?”  
  


* * *

  
  
It had been nearly a week since then, and while the amount of petals weren't getting worse, per se, the attacks were becoming more frequent. 

She had looked it up, of course, and it seemed to be a rare disease called Hanahaki: you would cough up flowers, petals, until either your unrequited love loved you back, or you died. Roots would grow in your lungs and you would choke to death; it was painful, and slow, with a high mortality rate and almost no public awareness. 

Clearly this was some type of mistake, however, since Weiss hadn't had feelings for Ruby in months.

At that thought, she coughed up a single petal, which floated gently down to the desk she was sitting at, landing on the papers scattered before her – a single spot of red in a sea of black and white.

It was fine –losing feelings for the person could also fix it, which should be easy enough, since Weiss doubted the depth of whatever she still felt for the girl should warrant such an extreme reaction to begin with.    
  
She was sure that, to save her own life, she could forget her. 

A week later, Weiss was coughing up half a dozen petals a day. 

Three weeks after that, nearly an entire flower’s worth. 

She had visited the family’s doctor a few days earlier.  He had gravely told her that if she didn’t commit to a treatment plan, she would eventually succumb to the illness, and since she had a lot of better things to do than die, she had decided to dedicate herself further to her work.  She had repacked all the things she had just  _ un _ packed from her years in Vale, had rehidden all the things she had finally thought herself strong enough to see again, and most importantly, had removed the framed photo of her team from her desk. 

If that wasn’t enough to get Ruby Rose off her mind, she didn’t know what was.    
  
But now, Weiss was getting the distinct feeling that this problem would not be solved as easily as she had hoped.   
  
She was huddled over her desk, having hastily dismissed the manager of one of the southern plants from the meeting they had been struggling to arrange for nearly two months with a half believed promise of rescheduling.  
  
Weiss was sweating bullets, her eyes glassy with a fevered, tired look that made her seem far older than her 24 years. 

Her desk was covered in red, that particular shade of crimson that had been haunting her dreams for weeks. 

The room smelt of Ruby, and she choked back a sob before her body was wracked with another coughing fit, a flurry of petals scattering from her throat, a deep, lingering pain in her lungs. 

If she’d read the symptoms right, that meant the roots were now taking hold.    
  
She coughed again, weakly, only to look up in shock when the door opened; her sister’s eyes wide as she stood in the threshold.    
  
“Oh, Weiss…”    
  
“Winter, what are–” Another set of coughs, and another flurry of petals, each as stark against the white of her dress as the last. Winter wasn’t supposed to be on leave for another month.   


She looked a mess, and she knew it, but the bit of pride she had left was keeping her from acknowledging it, despite her not even having the strength to brush Winter’s hand away as she ran it through her hair, tucking it behind her ear as she put the other to her forehead.   
  
“You’re running warm. How long have you been like this.”   
  
“Not long, just a few days.” Her voice was hoarse, and breathing  _ hurt _ , but she kept herself from just putting her head on the desk and crying so she would count that as a victory for the moment.    
  
“Stop lying to me. Your physician called–” Weiss remembered then, that she had never removed Winter as her emergency contact  “–and told me you’d missed your follow up, and hadn’t been answering your calls from him either. He was fairly certain you were dead, so imagine my surprise when I had to hear from him that you were ill at all!”    
  
“I’m handling it.”   
  
“Yes, that’s certainly what I’d call this. Wonderful example of it, by the way, you’re certainly showing the Schnee tendency to be a stubborn fool for no sake other than saying you’d suffered.”  
  
“That’s not it, I just–”    
  
“I don’t want to hear it, Weiss. Not right now. First, we have to get you cleaned up, then in bed, and then and  _ only _ then will I even  _ begin _ to entertain listening to the supposed logic behind this fabulous decision of yours.”  
  
Weiss made a move to argue, but Winter gave her a look and Weiss gave a haggard sigh instead – once her sister got it in her mind to do something, it was nearly impossible to get her to stop.  And frankly, Weiss was far too tired to argue; she had barely slept the past few nights, and at the mention of ‘bed’, every ounce of her traitorous body was begging her to sink between the covers and succumb to unconscious.  

“I have a lot of work to do still, you know.” But even as she said it, she was standing to make her way to her rooms. 

Her breath was labored by the time they made it to the living portion of the estate, her lungs felt like they were burning and she was leaving a trail of petals in her wake, which Winter was studying openly, much to Weiss’ annoyance.  Still, she refused Winter’s offer of a short break to recoup. She was a huntress, damn it, and a fairly well known one at that! She had been training her entire life to hunt monsters, a few stairs weren’t going to deter her. 

She regretted her stubbornness by the time she opened the door to her suite, recalling only then that she hadn’t had the energy to clean up from the night before.  Just as Winter stepped in behind her, and gasped softly.

“Weiss, it’s worse than I had expected!”    
  
Weiss didn’t have a response to that, and even if she did, she wasn’t certain she had the air to say it, so instead she just shrugged and made her way to the bed, flopping unceremoniously onto it with an involuntary whimper, petals flying into the air around her. 

A few seconds later, she felt the bed depress where her sister sat, and she made another soft sound as Winter rubbed her back.    
  
“You know, Weiss, when I was in school, I had the same thing happen to me.”   
  
“W-what?” A few more petals came with the startled cough she had been forced to take. “How is this the first I’m hearing of this?” Her voice was weak, barely audible, but Winter must have understood her well enough, because she continued her story.    
  
“I was a third year. There was this girl in the dorms who I was head over heels for. I started coughing up flowers by the end of the first semester, for about a week, but the school physician phoned father and he had them do the surgery.”   


“They didn’t even give you a choice?”   
  
“If I’d fought harder, they may have.” Winter was quiet for a moment, the gentles circles she’d been rubbing on Weiss’ back slowing, “I still thought I was going to be the heir at the time, though, and didn’t push the issue. ‘There’s no way she feels the same,’ I thought, and when I woke up, the feelings were gone. She was a nice girl, but I felt nothing more than friendship towards her.” Winter’s breath hitched a bit, her hand stopping completely, but Weiss could see her other hand balled up and twisted in the sheets, as she continued, “But when I got back from the hospital, she came up to me and asked where I had been. I told her I had been ill and needed surgery and she looked upset, asked if I was okay, and when I told her I was, she–” Winter cleared her throat, “–she asked me out. I went on the date, but I couldn’t– I wasn’t able to reciprocate. It was too late.” 

The two were quiet for a while, until finally Weiss broke the silence,    
  
“So, what are you suggesting I do?”   


“I think you need to talk to her. And by the looks of it, you’ll need to do it soon.”   
  
“What if she doesn’t feel the same about me anymore? I messed up Winter, I messed up really badly, and–”    
  
She fell into another coughing fit, this one worse, so much worse, than the one before, and Winter pulled Weiss into a sitting position and held her against herself until it subsided.     
  
“Soon, Weiss. Very soon.”  
  


* * *

  
Ruby was a bit bloodier than she would have liked when she made her way back into the small village on the outskirts of Vale; a huntress always looks the most impressive when they complete a hunt without a scratch after all. But this time, there were just too many for her to come out completely unscathed, and she had taken a fairly good slice to her shoulder before finishing the job.

The people of this village had been plagued by an unusually aggressive pack of beowolves (which is saying something, since beowolves aren’t know for being passive), six in total, which had taken Ruby the better part of the day to track and kill. The bounty on them was substantial, but looking around, she could tell that only desperation had driven the cost so high, and that paying it would set them back terribly. 

It didn’t matter though. Even before Ruby took stock of the town she hadn’t been planning on taking the full amount – she often haggled with them instead, asking for the cobbler to fix her boots, the smith to tune up her weapon, a few nights in the inn, a few meals, taking only as much lien as she felt she absolutely needed to keep herself moving. 

This was how Yang had intended on living her life, wild, free, always moving, always exploring and going on adventures, but after meeting Blake they wanted to stay together and Ruby couldn’t handle feeling as alone as she did while surrounded by other people, so she had opted to go her own way for a bit instead. Find herself, or whatever.

And frankly, she was having a pretty fun time of it. Yang and Blake were in the same kingdom, so if she absolutely needed them for a job, she could always call them in, and honestly, she had gotten so much stronger fighting on her own than she would have expected possible (even if she sometimes got lonely). Not to brag, but she was getting something of a reputation in the area as the go-to huntress, and while she wasn’t becoming rich, she was, well, happy wasn’t the word so much as...

She smiled at the people who came to greet her at the forest line, waving a little with her uninjured arm. 

Content. She was content.


	2. Chapter 2

Winter had apparently contacted Yang that night, because the next day Weiss found herself sitting with Winter on a private plane to Vale to meet her and Blake at the terminal.   
  
Weiss was curled up on the seat, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders – Winter was occasionally shooting her glances – and Weiss sighed a bit, ignoring the nearly ever-present feeling that she was choking.   
  
“What?” 

“You’re thinner.”   
  
Weiss didn’t respond to that, but she knew it was true – by around the second week, eating hurt and she had mostly been forced to stick to a liquid diet to soothe her battered throat.

“Do you want a book? I packed you one just in case.”   
  
Weiss shook her head, pulling the blanket in closer. In truth, she had brought some work she should get done while she could, but she couldn’t find the strength to look at it. 

The bag sat on the seat across from her, unopened.

“It’s going to work out, Weiss – one way or another.”  Of course, Winter was right; either Ruby would feel the same and it would cure itself or she wouldn’t, and Weiss would get the surgery.   
In fact, she had half a mind to skip this whole song and dance to begin with, and just go straight to the hospital, but Winter was adamant that doing this was important.   
  
“If you didn’t do this, you’d spend your entire life wondering,” she had said.   
  
And maybe she was right, maybe Weiss _would_ spend her entire life wondering, but that had to be better than confronting the girl whose heart she’d ripped out, right?

She rested her head on the window, coughing softly and clutching one of the petals tightly in her hand.   
  
She probably deserved this, after everything she had done. 

She hadn’t realized that she had started crying until Winter moved to the seat next to her and pulled her into a hug, which only served to make Weiss cry harder, because if Winter was being this affectionate, then things must be really bad.

She must have fallen asleep at some point, though, because the next thing she knew, Winter was gently shaking her awake, while brushing petals off the front of her shirt.   
  
“We’ve landed, Weiss. Yang and Blake are waiting for us.”   
  
Weiss glanced out the window and smiled a bit despite herself – Yang was pacing the tarmac and alternating between staring at the Schnee branded plane and talking to Blake, who was standing quietly near her side.   
  
It seemed some things hadn’t changed, despite her absence.

She sighed softly, turning away from the window.  “They’re going to kill me.”   
  
“Possibly, but they’ll have the courtesy to wait until after you’ve been cured, at least.”   
  
“Did you tell them?”   
  
“Not the specifics. Just that you were ill and taking time to rest- that you wanted to reconnect while you had the time off.”

Weiss stood and forced herself to use Winter’s offered arm as support as she walked towards two of the three missing pieces of her heart.   
  
“Yang, Blake…”   
  
The pair was eyeing Weiss carefully, most certainly noticing the bags beneath her eyes, her weight, how tired she seemed, the rasp to her voice – Winter had told them she was ill, but it clearly hadn’t prepared them for what they saw.

“Weiss, what’s happened to you?”

“I’ve been really busy with work and caught a pretty nasty flu. Still on the mend”   
  
Blake seemed suspicious, but Yang just nodded and gave her a look that said, ‘“Well, you brought that on yourself, didn’t you?” Blake nudged her and Yang grimaced. “So what brings you to Vale? Thought you were too good for us after you became CEO.”     

“That’s not what happened, and you know it. Things got very hectic very fast, is all. It was a struggle keeping everything in the company together after father died, I just didn’t have the time to visit.”   
  
“Or call. Or write.”   
  
Weiss didn’t respond to that, instead looking around the town curiously. “We seem to be down a person.”

“Ruby has been on her own for about a year now. Said she wanted to expand her horizons, or whatever. Pretty sure she just needed some time to recover after being put on ice, so to speak. She’s in a town about a days trip north of here,” Yang said.   
  
Winter’s hand tightened on Weiss’ shoulder. “I’m sure we could fly there.”

“That seems extreme. Besides, it’s just a small town, heavily wooded. Not too many places to land something like what you’ve got around there. If you’re that desperate to see her, you’ll have to hoof it.”

“I’m sure there’s somewhere else we can land. I’m going to check the satellite in the ship, I’ll be right back.”   
  
Winter squeezed her arm once before turning towards the plane. Yang and Blake watched her go before turning their eyes back to Weiss, now even Yang suspicious of their motives.  

“What’s going on?. Why are you here, now? Winter said you were sick, that you wanted to reconnect, that we had to meet you, but nothing else.”

Weiss started to say something but stopped, shaking her head sadly. “I just wanted to catch up.”   
  
“You smell like her, you know. Ruby.” Blake said. Aside from when she watched Winter’s walk to the airship, her eyes had not left Weiss once.

Weiss ignored the glare Yang was giving her and sighed, “I’m sick.” Weiss cleared her throat “I- I need to find her.”   
  
“To apologize?”   
  
“Yes, among other things.”   
  
“How sick is sick?”   
  
Weiss didn’t answer, and Yang met her eyes and held them for a long while, but Blake stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, “Whatever it is, it’s going to be alright.”   
  
Weiss nodded into her shoulder, her eyes welling with tears.   
  
She very nearly believed it.  


* * *

  
Winter had found a small clearing a bit closer to the village Ruby was working in, so the four made the short trip in the airship before continuing by hired car the rest of the way.   
  
Weiss wasn’t sure if it was being with her team again, or Blake’s assurances that it would all work out, but she had only coughed up a few petals, and had managed to hide them behind some papers she was pretending to study while Yang and Blake chatted about their latest job.   
  
“So there we were, two to seven, and the ursa lets out this crazy loud roar and a flock of nevermore hears it and swoops down – there must have been like, twenty of them!”   
  
“Stop exaggerating.”   
  
“Ten.”   
  
“Yang.”   
  
“Three?”   
  
“Better.”   
  
Weiss shuffled her papers a bit, trying not to show that she was invested in the story, but by the smug look on Yang’s face when their eyes met she knew she was failing.

Weiss felt nearly content for the first time in almost a year.  Even though things were still a bit tense, it was like her soul settled a bit when she was with them. Like all the anger she had been directing at herself was lightened a bit, just enough that she no longer felt like she was drowning.

She smiled a little behind her paper, clearing her throat a little, “Three nevermore is a lot less intimidating than twenty, Yang.”   
  
“Which is why I said twenty in the first place, but _someone_ –” She shot an accusatory look at Blake who was smirking. “–wants me to be honest.”   
  
“It _is_ the best policy, or so they say.”   
  
Even Winter smirked at the interaction.    
  
“So, do you have any good stories from your time away, Weiss? Fight any crazy grimm?”   
  
“No, no grimm. I was working at the company.”   
  
“Yeah, but not _every_ day, right? You must have gone out and done _something_.”

Weiss didn’t respond right away, the silence stretching in the car until, “No, I worked everyday.”   
  
“Everyday?”   
  
“Everyday.”   
  
“Even Sundays?”   
  
“Even Sundays.”   
  
“What time did you finish?”   
  
“When I fell asleep.”   
  
“Well no wonder you’re sick! Geez, Weiss, you can’t go on like that! People need rest!”   
  
“And friends.” Blake’s expression was knowing as she smiled at her, and Weiss found she couldn’t hold her gaze before she started coughing, sudden and violent and not able to be hidden, not even a little bit, as crimson red petals scattered through the cabin.   
  
“Weiss! Weiss, are you–”   
  
Winter rubbed Weiss’ back until the worst was over, a sad look telling Yang and Blake just how bad Weiss actually was. “It’s called Hanahaki Disease. It’s fatal unless treated.”   
  
“So why the _fuck_ is she here in the middle of _nowhere_ and not at the goddamn doctors?!”   
  
“Because there are two ways to treat it. The first is surgery. The second is getting the one you love to love you back.”   
  
Weiss couldn’t look at them, her face red with exertion and shame, and Blake said quietly, her voice full of pity, “Weiss…”   
  
Weiss didn’t respond, brushing the petals off her papers before going back to reading them, her eyes glassy with tears.   
  
‘Don’t pity me,’ she wanted to say, ‘I deserve this. I did it to myself.” 

Winter didn’t move back to her own space, and instead stayed nestled up against Weiss’ side and Weiss choked back a sob, ‘Don’t pity me’ were the only words going through her mind as she pretended to look over quarterly profits.   


* * *

  
“I don’t want Ruby knowing what’s wrong.”   
  
The hour after Weiss had her fit had been spent mostly in silence, with only occasional conversation between the other three passengers, so Weiss’ declaration broke a stiff and tense lull in a car full of normally loud, impassioned people.   
  
“What do you mean you don’t want her to know? She needs to know!”   
  
“Is that really the best course of action?”   
  
“Weiss, this is no time to be playing around with this!”   
  
“I don’t want her to do this out of a sense of pity, damn it! I don’t want her to try to love me because I’m dying! It’s not fair, it’s not fair to her and I’ve already been–” She choked on her words, this time though, blissfully, it wasn’t petals that were clogging her throat, keeping her from speaking, but rather emotions, truths, that she was too afraid to say out loud, “I’ve already…”   
  
“Okay,” Yang nodded and put a hand on her shoulder. “Okay. We won’t tell her.”   
  
“...Thank you.”

By the time they pulled into the village Weiss had only said a handful of words more, and the sun was hanging low in the sky.   
  
Yang and Blake were confident that Ruby would still be in this town, but unsure of exactly where, so the three of them went off to find her while Winter found accommodations.  

“So did you ever stop loving her?”   
  
Weiss stopped mid step, falling a few paces behind the pair before stuttering and catching up, “That’s a sudden question, isn’t it?”   
  
“Not really,” Yang shrugged, deceptively nonchalant about it, as if Weiss’ leaving hadn’t broken her sister’s heart. “And I think it’s pretty relevant, considering the situation as well.”   
  
“It’s not that simple…”   
  
“How? You either did or didn’t, Weiss.”   
  
“It’s not that I didn’t love her, Yang, but my father – the company – things got… they got bad, and I couldn’t–”   
  
“Yes or no, Weiss. Don’t jerk me around.”   
  
“I–”   
  
A flash of crimson cape caught the eye of the entire group, and Yang ran ahead, done with Weiss’ avoidance the second she found her sister. “Ruby!”   
  
“Yang?” Ruby turned, eyes wide and startlingly bright in the red tinged light of evening.   
  
“RUBY!” Yang barreled at her, scooping her into a hug and Blake wasn’t far behind, joining the two sisters with a warm smile on her face.   
  
Weiss was standing still, frozen in place at the sight of her.   
  
Her hair had grown out, not a lot – it fell to her mid back now – but enough that it finally hit Weiss just how much time had actually passed.   
  
Ruby looked healthy, strong, a little broader than she had been the last time Weiss had seen her. She was in her prime now, and looked it.   
  
Weiss still couldn’t move, her throat was burning, but she bit back the petals that she knew were waiting for release.

“We brought someone…”   
  
Ruby looked up from her team and stopped. Her expression must have been very similar to Weiss’ own, because neither girl spoke for a while, until, “What is she doing here?”   
  
“You could ask her yourself, you know.”   
  
“What are you doing here?” Ruby looked like she was trying to glare at her, to be angry, but Weiss had known her long enough to know that she was just hurt. “Didn’t you say you had a lot to take care of?”   
  
“Ruby…” Blake said.   
  
“It’s–...it’s fine. She’s right to be upset.” Weiss’ voice was soft.   
  
“I’m not ‘upset’, I’m-”   
  
“Let’s take this inside.” Blake was eyeing the few people milling about the street, more aware of them than the rest of her team – if they continued this conversation outside, they would most assuredly cause a scene.   
  
Weiss nodded and motioned towards a small bar and Yang, with her hand on the small of Ruby’s back, lead the group in, settling them at a table near the back where they could hopefully talk without bringing too much attention to themselves.

“So, why are you here?”   
  
“I–” Weiss realized, suddenly, that she hadn’t thought this far ahead. She knew Ruby would be upset with her, but she hadn’t planned what she would say to her when they met.   
  
Blake saw the panic in her eyes and put a hand on her shoulder. “Weiss came to apologize, Ruby. For what she did.”   
  
Ruby looked unimpressed, most likely because Weiss couldn’t say the words herself, a fact that was currently keeping her from being able to make eye contact with the girl in front of her. Her throat burned and she cleared it carefully before picking up where Blake left off.   
  
“I– Uh, I do want to say I’m sorry– what I did… It was..” 

“What was it, Weiss?”  
  
Ruby’s voice was quiet, but had an edge like steel – she had changed from that naive 16 year old who saw the best in everyone and forgave them as easily as breathing. Ruby was an adult now, not as jaded as the rest of her team, true, but less quick to just let things go as she had been in the past.   
  
“It was wrong. I handled it wrong.”   
  
Ruby’s gaze fell to the table, then back up to Weiss’ and it was cold. “Yeah, it’s how you handled it that was the major issue here.”   
  
Weiss opened her mouth to respond, but Ruby held up a hand to stop her, “I can’t do this right now.” She pushed up off the table and stood, shooting a weak smile at Yang and Blake. “Sorry for the trouble this must have put you through.”   
  
“It was no trouble, Ruby, we were planning on coming to see you soon anyway.”   
  
Ruby shook her head a bit as she walked out of the bar, and Weiss started choking – gasping, shuddering coughs that wracked her frame and made her tremble. Blake was rubbing her back and speaking softly, but Weiss couldn’t tell what she was saying, her thoughts repeating over and over, ‘she doesn’t love me, she doesn’t love me, I hurt her so badly and she doesn’t love me’, realizing for the first time that there had been a small piece of her that had still hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your interest in this story so far. Hope you've been enjoying it! Another chapter and an epilogue will be coming up soon.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Ruby went out of her way to avoid Weiss, going so far as to literally turn heel and walk out of rooms that Weiss entered, and each time Weiss felt another piece of her heart break and splinter. Each time she would end up coughing, tears rolling down her face that she easily brushed away as being from the fit.    
  
Ruby couldn’t avoid her forever though, not with how small the town was, and they both ended up in front of the tailor’s shop, not immediately noticing the other as they eyed the bolts of fabric in the window. 

Weiss realized first, and said softly, “Your hair has grown out.”    
  
Ruby looked up and grimaced, but didn’t run so Weiss considered that a minor victory.    
  
“You look thin.”    
  
Weiss wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she didn’t. Instead she said, “I missed you, you know.”  
  
“You have a funny way of showing it.”    
  
“I know.”    
  
They lapsed into silence for a moment, standing far enough away to be uncomfortably distant. 

“So why did you leave?”   
  
“You know why, Ruby. After Whitley left, father had no one left to pass the company to. His condition deteriorated far faster than expected and I had to go home to handle it.”    
  
“You know what I was asking, Weiss.”    
  
‘Why did you leave me, why did you do it like  _ that _ ’ was the question that hung unanswered between them now, and Weiss stiffened a bit before responding.    
  
“I didn’t– it wasn’t that I didn’t love you, Ruby. I know I didn’t do anything to show you that, but– I was scared.” Ruby’s expression was neutral and Weiss felt herself panic, “I was scared, and I fucked up, Ruby! I– I just– it wasn’t as simple for me as it was for you! To be together, it–”    
  
“It was what, Weiss?”   
  
“Our jobs are dangerous, Ruby. I couldn’t bear to– to watch you–”    
  
“So you left?”    
  
Silence stretched between them again, and Weiss held herself, arms wrapping around her chest as she struggled to keep the bursts of red from coming out, from giving it all away. “Did you stop loving me?” Weiss asked.   
  
Another silence; in reality a few seconds but to Weiss it felt like years. “I don’t know.”    
  
Ruby left and Weiss fell to her knees, a pool of crimson resting on the cobblestones.    
  


* * *

  
They left that night, having paid a driver to take them back to their airship. No one spoke to Weiss, who spent most of the trip doubled over and spewing petals while Winter held her close to her side, supporting her when she couldn’t hold herself up.    
  


The man drove quickly, as fast as he could on the uneven roads that connected the village to the shuttle.   
  
Yang and Blake shot concerned looks at each other, at Winter, at Weiss when she wasn’t looking, until finally they made it to the airship, petals swirling through the air when they clambored out of the back seat, the sight of which nearly made Weiss sob, briefly thinking it was Ruby.    
  
She fell, on hands and knees as she gasped for air, her lungs burning,  _ searing _ , as if being torn, shredded and this time she did sob, openly and harshly, her throat already raw and Blake was at her side, but Weiss couldn’t tell, didn’t look, didn’t care, just put her head on her shoulder and wept, soaking through her shirt as petals got caught in the wind.   


 

* * *

 

  
They were on the airship now, not yet departed as Winter did some final checks for take off. Weiss was standing, taking shuddering breaths, but standing, and Blake was close by as if she were waiting for her to collapse again.    
  


“She’s pretty happy with how her life has played out.” Yang’s expression was soft, sorry, and Weiss looked away. “She spent a lot of time moving on – it’s… well, it’s not going to be so easy, to get her to admit it.”    
  
Yang wasn’t trying to be mean, she knew that. Weiss held back a cough, mostly because it hurt more than it ever did before, her throat and lungs felt like they were on fire and she nodded, “I know. I know– I wasn’t expecting her to say yes. This was a long shot at best. I– I really hurt her.” Blake put a hand on her shoulder and Weiss bit back tears. Weiss continued, “It’s not her fault. None of it was her fault.”  She didn’t know why she said it, no one had even been considering the possibility that Ruby was to blame, but Weiss couldn’t stop herself as tears fell against her will, trailing down her cheeks. “She tried so hard to get me to stay, and I couldn’t– I was so scared of being with her. I lied to her, at the village, I said I was afraid to watch her get hurt, but that’s not true. I was afraid to be with her, for real. To call it what it was. I was afraid of what it would mean. I ran, like a coward I ran and hid and didn’t respond to her messages, her emails, her phone calls, and eventually she stopped trying and I thought, ‘I can do this. I can live my life like this.’ because I’ve never really– my family doesn’t– I don’t know how to–”    
  
Weiss felt herself curl up, and raised her hand to catch the petals she knew would be coming, her thoughts feeling disjointed and distant.    
  
They were the color of fresh blood against the snow white of her hands.    
  
“Weiss…”    
  
Her lungs and throat– it felt as if she were being cut up from the inside, and when she tried to drop the petals to the ground they stuck to her skin.    


It wasn’t that the petals looked like blood, it was that they were coated in it, their slick red surface faintly reflecting the overhead lights of the airship, drawing her attention as her thoughts struggled to make sense of it.

“Weiss!”    
  
If they were covered in blood, then that must mean it’s her blood.    
  
Her thoughts felt like they were swimming through molasses, sluggish and heavy. Someone put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her, they were speaking, she was sure of it, but she couldn’t figure out what they were saying. She squinted, but everything seemed far away now, and all she wanted was to sleep.   
  
“Weiss! You need to stay with us!”    
  
“Ruby? Sorry, I’m just so tired...”    
  
She felt like she was falling. 

And then she felt nothing. 

 

* * *

 

Consciousness came back to her slowly, and she felt like she was still underwater when she managed to mumble out a weak, “What happened?”    
  
She felt someone holding her hand, but it still felt like she was a few steps removed from her body.    
  
“You passed out, Weiss. It’s getting worse far faster than we were expecting.”    
  
“Am I gonna die?”    
  
There was a period of silence, but Weiss couldn’t tell if it was minutes or seconds.    
  
“No, not yet.”    


Weiss wasn’t sure, but through the slowly fading fog of her mind, she thought she’d heard Yang.   
  
“You’re not dying without talking to her.”    
  
“She isn’t going to make it, Yang, we discussed this! She’s getting worse more quickly than anyone could have expected! She needs to have the surgery immediately!”    
  
“Not until she says it. Not until Ruby hears it. They both deserve that much. I called her, she’s on her way now.”    
  
“This is reckless! I’m not putting  _ my _ sister’s life at risk for this, not with how bad she’s gotten! I was wrong to think she could make this trip, we need to get her treated now!”    
  
“Winter, I–”    
  
“Stop!”    
  
‘Blake,’ Weiss thought gratefully, ‘bless Blake.’    
  
She had noticed Weiss opening her eyes, shifting to a less limp, though still supine position, heard her weak voice even over the impassioned arguing of the sisters.     
  
“Stop, both of you! She’s trying to say something!”    
  
The group immediately fell into silence, and Weiss started over,    
  
“I–I’ll wait for her,” thinking was getting easier now, less like she was drowning and more like she was floating, “I can wait another day.”    
  
“What if she doesn’t make it in time, Weiss?” Winter’s voice was edged in panic, and Weiss tightened her weak grip on her hand,    
  
“She will. The one thing about Ruby is, no matter how many times I’ve let her down, she’s never once done the same to me.”    
  
Winter exhaled loudly, frustrated, her grip on Weiss’ hand tightening, “Have her meet us at the hospital. I’m not letting her die out here on a chance.”    
  
Weiss didn’t have the strength to argue, as she felt exhaustion pull her back under the waves of unconsciousness. 

 

* * *

 

Weiss felt herself dragged back into awareness suddenly, as if a switch were flipped. 

  
She was in a hospital, that much was certain, and Winter was asleep in the chair by her bed, looking as undignified as she’d ever seen her, her hair spilling out of the neat bun she always kept it in, a trail of drool down her chin and her head listing to one side, clearly exhausted. 

How long had she been unconscious?    
  
She noticed the IV in her arm next, and knew that she was dehydrated, and was obviously underfed, since putting anything down her throat had been an exercise in pain.    
  
She pushed the button for the nurse, and waited, the constant beeping of the heart monitor setting her on edge.    
  
The doctor and nurse came in together, and the nurse bustled to take vitals while the doctor smiled at her sympathetically, “Ms. Schnee, how are you feeling?”    
  
Weiss tried to answer, but her throat felt like sandpaper and she grimaced, trying to clear it, “Not… bad…” she managed to eek out, but the woman smiled at her a bit wider, a little more forced, and Weiss knew she had answered incorrectly.    
  
“You came to us severely dehydrated, malnourished and with a substantial amount of lacerations in your throat and lungs. You should be feeling very bad, in my opinion.” Weiss at least had the courtesy to look a little chagrined at that, cheeks flushing a bit in response. “However, you  _ are _ alive, so I suppose we can check that one off as a win. Although if you had waited much longer, you may not have been so lucky.”    
  
“I–”    
  
“Do you know that untreated Hanahaki disease has an 85% mortality rate?”    
  
Winter must have been woken by the nurse, because she heard her shift in her chair, eyes boring into Weiss as if it hadn’t been her suggestion to try this in the first place,    
  
“I did…”    
  
“And here you are,” said the doctor, raising an X-Ray to the light, showing Weiss her lungs, her throat, roots and stems and thorns twisted and caught in a nest, “with one of the worst cases I’ve ever heard of. Of all the flowers it could be, of course it was roses.”    
  
Weiss coughed a little, wincing as the petals fell across the blankets and the bed, “We’ll be giving you something for the pain now that you’re awake, but we wanted to discuss treatment with you first. Can you hold out a bit longer? Just nod for yes or shake for no for now.”    
  
Weiss nodded, grateful at being given permission to not use her voice for the moment.   
  
“Good. Now, this would have been much easier if you’d come in for surgery months ago, but we can still perform it and expect about 90% of lung capacity back. Maybe more with physical therapy.”    
  
Weiss nodded, although hearing about any decrease in lung function made her queasy.    
  
“Actually, Doctor, she’s only been ill for a little over a month now.” Winter chimed in.   
  
“A month?” The doctor held the X-Ray up again, eyes wide, and Weiss nodded and mouthed, ‘five weeks’.    
  
The Doctor stared at the X-Ray a moment longer then took the chart from the nurse and looked those over as well, “Then it seems to me that you have a decision to make, Ms. Schnee, and quickly. With how rapid the growth of the root system is, I’d estimate that you have a week left before it becomes inoperable, and maybe a week after that before you die.” Weiss flinched, and the Doctor shook her head, “I know it sounds harsh, but I feel like being blunt is the best way to get across how serious this is. Without treatment you will die.”    
  
Weiss looked to Winter expectantly, and Winter nodded once, her expresion stern.    
  
“I’ll do it.”    
  
“Good. We will schedule it for later tod–”

The door slammed open, with apparently more force than intended, because Yang poked her head in with a sheepish smile. “Sorry about that– it’s just– Weiss, she’s here.”    
  
“My patient is very ill, she shouldn’t have–”    
  
“Yeah, I know but this is important.”    
  
Weiss felt her heart sink into her stomach, a flurry of petals escaping her mouth from the pained hacking that the thought of Ruby brought her to.    
  
“She wants to see me?”    
  
“Yeah, can she come in?”    
  
“O-of course.” Her voice was hoarse, but clear and Yang smiled at her a little before ushering Ruby into the room, their leader looking everywhere but Weiss’ eyes. 

“Weiss, I–” Ruby’s looked supremely uncomfortable, and Winter stood, motioning for the doctor to follow her into the hall, smiling a little at Ruby as she passed. “Weiss, I’m sorry, I– I didn’t know you were sick, I shouldn’t have been so–”    
  
“It’s fine, Ruby. I didn’t tell you for that reason.”    
  
“It’s not fine, Weiss! If I’d known, I’d have listened to what you had to say!”    
  
“I didn’t want you to sugarcoat things for me, Ruby, I didn’t want your pity. I wanted to know how you felt about me, after what I had done, without your empathy forcing you into rose-colored glasses.”   
  
“You idiot.”    
  
Ruby and Weiss looked up in shock, having thought Yang had left with the others, only to find her leaning against the wall, shaking her head, “The disease shows how you feel more than any words could. If you’d explained yourself, don’t you think she would have understood?”    
  
“That’s not–”    
  
“Yang! Get out!”    
  
“Alright, alright, don’t have to tell me twice…”    
  
“I shouldn’t have to tell you once!”    
  
Yang stuck out her tongue and for a brief instant, Weiss was back in school, Ruby and Yang were bickering, Blake was reading and pretending she wasn’t smirking behind her book and Weiss was studying, reading the same sentence ten times, but not really minding because she was content, feeling, for the first time in her life that she was home.    
  
She burst out into a strangled sounding laugh, doubled over in pain as she tried to take in air through her shredded lungs but unable to stop.    
  
“W-Weiss, you really shouldn’t–”    
  
“God, the two of you! Things haven’t changed a bit, have they?” Ruby and Yang looked between each other and Weiss, concern flashing across their eyes as Weiss’ laughter changed to tears, her shoulders shaking as she cried, “Things haven’t changed at all, but I still feel like I’ve missed so much! How could I have left you all? How could I have left  _ you _ ?”    
  
Yang nodded at Ruby silently and backed out of the room, the door latching closed behind her as Ruby moved forward, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling Weiss close. “It’s okay, Weiss. It’s okay. You came back.”    
  
“Because I had to! Because Winter made me! I’m so stupid, Ruby, I’m so stupid! You were the best thing that had ever happened to me, you all were my family, and I just–”    
  
“Do you regret it?”    
  
Weiss was clutching Ruby’s shirt, her head in her shoulder and she nodded furiously into the cowl of her cloak, “Y-yes, I do, I did, every day!”    
  
“Do you love me?”    
  
Again she nodded, taking deep, shuddering breaths that sounded raspy and weak, so much weaker than Ruby had ever heard, even with all the nights they had stayed together, curled up besides the fire of a hastily made camp, in a shared bed of an inn, on the benches of transport stations and leaned together, half asleep, exhausted after fighting for days against an enemy that never seemed to rest or falter.    
  
“I’ve never stopped loving you, Ruby, not even for a second, not even in my dreams. I missed you every day, so much it was killing me.”    
  
“Weiss, you’re the smartest idiot I know! You should have called– I’d have come!”    
  
“I fucked up so badly, I didn’t think you’d– I thought I had–”    
  
“It’s okay, Weiss. It’s okay.”    
  
“I was so scared, Ruby– you wanted to be together, you wanted to– to make this real, and I panicked and ran and–”   
  
“You left because you were afraid?” Weiss nodded desperately, still nestled into Ruby’s shoulder, “I mean, that’s flattering, but that was so stupid.”    
  
“I know!”    
  
“You could have at least told me–”    
  
“I know!”    
  
“I love you a lot, so it’s nice to know you loved me so much you freaked out, but–”    
  
“You mean loved, don’t you?”    
  
“No, it’s present tense for sure.”    
  
Weiss had since stopped crying, but her breathing evened out a little at that, as if a weight were lifted, “That can’t be true.”    
  
“Feels pretty true,” Ruby said, her tone exaggeratedly contemplative as she paused, assessing her feelings, “Yep. Definitely still love you.”    
  
“After what I’ve done?”    
  
“Well, to be fair, I have proof of how much you love me all over my shirt, so.”    
  
Weiss let out a breathy laugh, pulling herself closer to Ruby, smiling into her cloak in disbelief, “You always were too good for me.”    



	4. Epilogue

Ruby smiled as she took the chicken out of the oven, setting it on the trivet on the counter.    
  
Weiss was getting her results back today, and after nearly three months of remission she was excited to hopefully get a clean bill of health from the doctors.    
  
She was still on light duty, and strongly advised not to do anything even remotely strenuous, and after months of relative inactivity, she was driving everyone around her a bit mad.    
  
“Smells good,” called Yang, as she and Blake kicked their shoes off at the door. “What’d you make?”    


“Roasted chicken and green beans!”    
  
“Nice!”    
  
“Where’s Weiss? I thought you were getting her at the hospital on your way home?”    
  
“Oh, she’s coming.”    
  
“Did she get cleared?” Ruby was suddenly anxious – if she hadn’t come in with them, maybe she needed time to clear her head after getting bad news? Or she had permanent lung problems now? Or–    
  
“I think we should let her tell you that herself.”    
  
“Yeah, I guess…”    
  
The door slammed open, Weiss looking triumphant as she held a piece of paper high above her head, “I’m officially cured!”    
  
“Weiss!” Ruby made a trail of petals, the only petals seen in the small apartment the four shared for the past two months, in a straight line to Weiss, tackling her into a hug that forced her to take a few steps backwards through the threshold of the yet closed door.    
  
“Ruby!”    
  
“You’re okay?”    
  
“I’m okay! They said that the scarring is minimal- I should have almost no damage!”   
  
“That’s great, Weiss! I’m so happy!”    
  
Weiss felt herself lifted off the ground, and she laughed, loud and bright and genuine as Ruby twirled her in circles in the front yard, “Put me down, you dolt! People can see us!”   
  
“Oh, who cares!”   
  
“You two are so cute it’s disgusting.” Yang was smiling and Blake was leaning against her, fingers intertwined. “Ruby spent a long time on dinner, let’s go eat it before it gets cold. Or Blake eats it all.”    
  
“Hey!”    
  
Weiss laughed again and put up a half hearted fight as Ruby put her over her shoulder, walking back into the house like she was nothing heavier than air, “Ruby!”   
  
“We shouldn’t be late to dinner, Weiss! You heard Yang, Blake’s going to eat it all!”    
  
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?” was heard distantly over the sounds of Weiss’s laughter, of Ruby’s cackling, and Weiss felt warm.   
  
She had decided, the day Ruby came to see her in the hospital, that she would move to a less active role in the company; she handled large decisions, both operational and managerial, but had hired a small group of people to act in her stead for the day to day runnings, opting instead to work from her home, a small two bedroom in Vale, surrounded by family.   
  
And she had never been happier.    


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your kind comments and support! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much I enjoyed writing it!


End file.
